


The Chosen One(s)

by NPennyworth



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Background Stricklake, Breakups, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Might be a slow burn, Mistaken Identity, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Jim Lake Jr/ Claire Nuñez, Post-Season 3 (Trollhunters), Troll Jim Lake Jr.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2019-09-06 02:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16823395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NPennyworth/pseuds/NPennyworth
Summary: Jim Lake Jr was trying to hunt down Otto in Paris when he stumbled across a superhero. Marinette Dupain-Cheng had enough on her plate before she knew trolls were real.Or, the story of how they have more in common than they thought.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FanaticFangirl2602](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanaticFangirl2602/gifts).



> This is literally the rarest pair I have ever stumbled across, and here I am foolishly writing fic for it.  
> I wasn't actually going to post this until I had updated one of my other WIPs but HERE WE ARE, this is the world we're living in and we're all going to have to deal with it. Rest assured none of my other stories are abandoned, I will get back to them!  
> Thank you Belle, for inspiring this wreck and getting me into this ship in the first place! You're amazing and a terrible influence. :)

Jim wasn’t expecting his job to be easy, but he was still surprised at how hard it was proving to be to take down the Janus order. Somewhere along the way to the new heartstone they received word that Otto was somewhere in Europe, and there was yet another split as he and Claire began to chase him down while the trolls continued on.

Crossing the ocean had been enough of a pain that as soon as they landed in Spain Claire had pulled him into a kiss, saying that she needed an emotional anchor on this continent just in case they had to do that again.

Her emotional anchor came a week later, when hidden beneath a bridge in Italy they broke up. Their proximity had made them realise that they had fallen in love with the idea of each other rather than the actual person, so they shook hands and resolved to try and remain friends, for the sake of the mission.

After two awkward weeks of tiptoeing around each other Claire was replaced by Strickler and his mother, who’d booked a European vacation so they could help him and return a few of the familiars to their home country.

Jim wasn’t sure what he felt when he watched Claire walk through one of her portals and vanish, but he knew that she wouldn’t be coming back. And this was for the best, they’d both decided on this, but some part of him couldn’t help but think that she’d fallen in love with the Jim that came Before, with fingers instead of claws and skin where stone now was.

He’d missed his mother, but being with her wasn’t home, not with six infants demanding constant attention and sending his mother running from one to another, stopping every now and then to deposit one in Jim’s arms only to have the child begin to cry harder than ever.

They didn’t mind Strickler, something Jim noticed with the smallest hint of bitterness. Strickler seemed slightly terrified every time he had to rock a child to sleep or change a diaper, but they seemed to calm down when he tucked them in or held out a bottle they greedily accepted.

Jim absolutely refused to label whatever was happening between his mother and Strickler, choosing instead to spend as much time as he could away from both of them and patrolling the streets of a city he didn’t know.

So when he found the changeling he was almost relieved to have something he could actually fight, instead of thinking what a young changeling meant.

She had originally caught his attention as a blur of red and black out of the corner of his eye, one night when clouds had threatened rain and covered the moonlight enough for Jim to venture a little closer to the city centre than he usually would.

He didn’t catch a full view of her troll form, only knew the colour was unnatural on a human form and she was travelling far higher and faster than a human would be able. She’d vanished into an alleyway and there was a flash of light, and a human girl had walked out.

The girl looked for all the world like an ordinary human, hair such a deep black it was almost blue and eyes a colour that reminded Jim of his amulet. She looked more concerned about the rain than anything else as she ran off, and Jim paused for only a moment before deciding to follow her.

The alleyway where she’d transformed was empty and Jim’s fur stood on end, his troll senses picking up on the faintest trace of magic.

The girl ended up in a small bakery in a section of the city he’d never patrolled, where a couple hugged her and brought her inside the well lit building and the scent of freshly baked bread drifted out into the street. Jim’s mouth might have once watered at the scent, but now his stomach only turned at the thought of a changeling living here, with a safe and warm place to call home and parents that showered affection on it.

Jim had thought they’d gotten all the familiars out of the Darklands, but maybe there was a second nursery they’d missed; the girl was his age, far too old to have been recently replaced. He imagined a little baby in the Darklands, bright blue eyes being swallowed up by endless darkness.

“The red thing swooped into the alleyway, there was light, and then a girl walked out,” Jim explained later to Strickler. “What else could it be?”

“There are more forces in this world than just trolls,” Strickler told him, carefully detaching a baby from one of his wings and cradling him, only for the child to begin trying to grab his nose. “You can’t risk exposing yourself.”

“And if it is a changeling? Mom can’t go,” Jim said, and they both looked towards their hotel room’s bedroom turned nursery where his mother had gone to comfort whichever baby was screaming. It was an unspoken pact between the two of them that Barbara Lake must be kept out of danger at any cost.

“Just give me a gaggletack,” Jim said. “If she is a changeling, I can deal with her. If not, I’ll come back and we’ll figure out Plan B.”

Strickler looked like he was going to argue but the baby he was holding distracted him by spitting up, and the look on his face was something Jim dearly wished he’d gotten a picture of.

“I won’t be responsible for this,” Strickler grumbled, one roll of paper towel later. He handed over a gaggletack wrapped in cloth and Jim put it in his backpack, putting on his ridiculously oversized hoodie and carefully pulling the hood over his horns. “Come back no matter what, and we’ll decide what to do together.”

“Of course,” Jim nodded, opening the window. “Look after Mom while I’m out.” He jumped out and began to head for the bakery, but not quickly enough to avoid hearing Strickler’s “always.”

* * *

Of all the things Marinette would have expected today, meeting a troll was not one of them.

Even the akuma attacks were becoming routine, comforting in their consistency. It was always somebody upset, it always made a supervillian with a somewhat coherent theme, and said supervillian would always cause enough mayhem for her to confront them easily enough. They didn’t avoid the spotlight or conflict, so she’d never expected to be attacked by one while walking in a dark alleyway.

Paris wasn’t the safest city in the world, but being Ladybug had given Marinette enough confidence in her abilities to assume ordinary muggers or thieves wouldn’t be a threat to her. But the creature that attacked her was anything but ordinary.

He had remained mostly hidden in shadows, a flash of movement the only warning sign before he had grabbed her with hands more resembling paws. His skin was blue and his eyes were merciless, and although she scratched his skin and tried to pull away she couldn’t escape. With one hand holding her in place he reached behind him and pulled out…

A horseshoe?

Marinette’s mind had only a moment of confusion before kicking into survival mode, and she stamped on his foot. Hard. He winced but didn’t let go, teeth baring in a snarl (were those tusks?) as he pulled her closer and tapped her with the horseshoe.

Much to her relief nothing happened, and the two of them were frozen in a strange tableau, his breath tickling her cheek as one of his arms was wrapped around her chest and holding her close, the rough edges of armor pressing into her back. He was holding the horseshoe to her neck and it chilled her skin, and she was finding it hard to breathe from terror.

Any moment he would reach up and grab her earrings, yanking them out and vanishing to bring them to Hawkmoth. Or maybe he’d shout his supervillain name as they seemed so fond of doing, declaring to the world that they’d been wronged and would make everybody pay.

He wasn’t human, that much was certain, but he wasn’t like any other akuma victim she’d seen before. It seemed a little like he was waiting for something, but Marinette couldn’t imagine what.

It took her far too long to sense Tikki by her side, hovering frantically by her ear and whispering for her to transform.

“Spots on,” she whispered, still frozen in place, but as soon as the magic of the transformation wrapped around her he flinched and recoiled as if he’d been stung.

In a moment Marinette was replaced with Ladybug, and suddenly she was able to move again. She pulled out her yo-yo and stared at him, wondering where his akuma was hidden. His hoodie and sweatpants seemed unthreatening, but she knew there had to be armor hidden under them. She couldn’t make out most of his features thanks to the hoodie with the exception of his eyes, being almost as blue as his skin. Aside from that he seemed to be fairly normal, and nothing stood out as a possible akuma.

He was still staring at her like she had a third eye, and she felt almost self conscious before stepping forward, drawing back her yo yo and preparing to throw it if necessary.

“Who are you?” she asked, and he looked from her expression to her yo yo and took a step back.

“In trouble,” he muttered and began to turn and run. Her arm was faster though, the yo yo string wrapping around him and tripping him. There was a rather loud crack as his head hit the ground and Marinette winced.

“Don't run,” she warned him, walking slowly towards the now groaning bound figure. “Who are you?”

She reached for his hood and managed to grab it, and he stiffened and began trying to wriggle away. His efforts only resulted in the hood being dislodged, and Marinette was facing a creature with horns and long pointed ears that looked far too natural to be the result of an akuma. She dropped her yo yo in shock.

“Y-Y-YOU-! You’re a-!”

“Ooooh, shoot. I, uh, um... I can explain?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this got a lot more attention than I thought it would. Welcome, and enjoy the update!

For the record, Marinette didn’t consider it kidnapping. He’d been the one to attack first, and while she was in her civilian identity. Then he’d spun some sort of ridiculous story about trolls and wizards, something she would have dismissed as nonsense if it weren’t for his inhuman features, so an interrogation was in order. She’d considered calling Chat to help her, but decided against it on the grounds that she really didn’t want her detainee to give him any clues about her secret identity. So it was just the two of them on a rooftop in the industrial district, somewhere with enough privacy but still public enough that she could easily call for help if needed.

“Is this usually how you treat your prisoners?” he asked, tugging at the yo yo string that kept his hands tied behind his back. Marinette kept the other end gripped tightly in her hands, not wanting to risk him running before she got some answers.

“You’re not a prisoner,” she said. “As long as you answer my questions I’ll let you go.”

“Make it quick,” he said, looking furtively at the sky. “I’ve got to get back home before anybody notices I’m gone.”

“So do I,” Marinette said. “In fact, I was on my way home when a stranger jumped out of an alley and attacked me.” He flinched and looked down.

“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”

“Probably not.”

“Well, sorry anyways. I mistook you for somebody else.”

“Who?”

“A changeling,” he said, growling a little and looking away. “I saw you change the other day but didn’t get a clear look, and there was magic involved so I thought you were a changeling. I didn’t know that Paris had magical acrobats.”

“I’m a superhero,” Marinette said. “Ladybug? I’ve been Paris’ superhero for two years now.” Which he should have known if he’d lived in Paris for any amount of time, or watched the news at all.

“I’ve been busy, okay?”

“Hunting these changelings? Why do you need to hunt them, anyways? Aren’t you one?”

“No,” he said, his lip curling a little. “I’m half troll. Changelings have a troll form and a human form, and they steal human babies and take their place.”

“They steal babies?” It sounded like something out of a fairytale, and yet here was this half troll, fur and tusks and horns peeking out of his hair. Too strange to be normal, but too real to be a fantasy. “What happens to them?”

“They keep them in their base,” he said. “They need them there to transform into a human. But they’ve been rescued. That’s why I attacked you, because I thought that we missed some if you-”

“Were able to transform,” she finished, nodding her head. It made some sense, despite still sounding like something out of a story for children. It made for a good fairytale but was horrifying when brought into reality. “How many changelings are left, then? And do they all look like you?”

“As far as I know we’ve found all of them,” he said. “And probably, unless they’ve found another way to hide. That’s why I’m here in Paris; there’s one changeling that we’ve been hunting who we tracked here.”

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “And how do I know that you’re telling the truth?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Do you have a lie detector or something? What proof do you need?”

“I don’t know!” she said. “It’s just that everything you’re saying is crazy, and if I believe you then I believe that there’s an entire underground city of trolls and a secret society of changelings that nobody’s noticed for centuries!” Marinette realized that she was yelling and stopped, turning around and taking a few deep breaths. “It’s a lot to take in, okay?”

Paris was beautiful at night; windows filled with light stretched off in the distance and she could see the familiar peak of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It looked like the city was filled with the stars that couldn’t be seen in the sky. It was a familiar sight, and she shivered looking out at it. To think that there could be monsters walking around, hiding under bridges and in sewers and behind human faces…

Hawkmoth seemed benevolent next to a global network of creatures that stole babies and replaced them. And maybe that was what bothered her, that she felt so stupid if she hadn’t noticed something wrong on this scale, that she felt useless in the face of such a larger world. If this half troll was telling the truth, then he was the real hero where she had been merely playacting.

“Let’s say I believe you,” she said, turning back to him. “Then what?”

“What?” he said, looking confused.

“If what you’re saying is true then I have to help you. I can’t just stand by while something like this has been happening.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” he said, still sounding confused. “If you let me go, then I can handle it from here.”

“Right,” she said, loosening the string and setting him free. “Spots off,” she said, and the troll stepped back as the transformation swept over her. Marinette’s heart beat a little quicker as she stood there without the mask or costume, despite knowing that he already knew her secret identity.

“I’m Marinette,” she said, holding out her hand to him. “And I want to help you.”

He looked less confused and more uncertain now as he stared at her hand, and after a long moment of hesitation he quickly shook her hand (his hand was soft and warm) before releasing it and stepping back.

“Jim,” he said, and she couldn’t stop the startled laugh. She immediately clapped her hand over her mouth and mentally kicked herself.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I just-”

“It’s okay,” he said with a half grin. “I’d find it weird if an elf appeared and introduced herself as Jane.”

“It’s nice to meet you Jim,” she said, risking a small smile of her own. “If only it could have been under more civil circumstances.”

“Maybe next time will be better,” he said, and her smile became a bit larger.

“Next time? So we will meet again?”

“As long as you’re honest about wanting to help.”

“Of course! I’ll see if I can help you track down this changeling; I can probably get all my friends to-”

“No!” Jim said quickly, and she raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I’d appreciate the help, but the whole troll thing is supposed to be a secret.”

“You told me.”

“And I’m going to get in so much trouble for that,” he said. “Humans really aren’t supposed to know anything about trolls.”

“So I can’t tell anybody?”

“It could cause a lot of people to freak out,” he said. “To keep everybody safe it’s better this way.”

“Okay,” she said. “I can do that, as long as you don’t tell anybody I’m Ladybug.”

“Not many people I can tell, but deal.” They stood in silence for a moment when Jim’s pocket began to vibrate, and Marinette smiled as she watched him pull out his phone and fumble to answer it. Seeing him with something as mundane as a cellphone made him seem more human, less mythical creature.

“Okay, I know what you’re going to say but I can explain-” he said, only to be broken off by an angry voice on the other end. “Look, I’ll make something up, just don’t…” he trailed off and facepalmed. “Okay, bad idea. Yes, I know, but I’ll be back in a few minutes and I can… fine. Yes, I know. I’m coming.” He ended the call with a snarl and turned back to Marinette.

“I’ve got to go,” he said. “I can come back here tomorrow night, though. If you want to meet again.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, her mind racing as she tried to come up with an excuse for being out this late two nights in a row. Maybe she could make up a sleepover with Alya… but no, her parents might mention it at some point to her, and if she asked Alya to cover for her she’d want to know why. She’d just have to sneak out and hope she wouldn’t be caught.

“Tomorrow,” he said, and she nodded.

“Until then,” she said. “See you around, Jim.” He gave her a wave and jumped off the roof, and Marinette’s stomach lurched. She raced to the edge only to see him disappearing around the corner, seemingly unharmed from the jump.  _ Right, not human, _ she reminded herself.

“Do you believe him?” Tikki asked, peeking out from her pocket where she’d been hiding.

“I don’t know. I think so,” she said. “Why would he lie? And if he was lying, surely he could come up with a more believable story.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I want to visit Master Fu,” she said. “See if he knows anything about trolls, or this thing.” She held up the horseshoe that Jim had attacked her with; it had fallen on the ground with him when she’d knocked him out and he hadn’t asked for it back, but she had to assume that it was some sort of magical weapon.

“Marinette, this could be dangerous,” Tikki warned her. “This is something completely different than what Ladybug usually does.”

“Ladybug helps people,” Marinette said. “As long as I can help people I will.” Tikki still looked nervous but nodded.

“I’ll tell Master Fu you’ll stop by tomorrow,” she said. “You should talk to him before you see Jim again. And we should get home,” she said. “You need to get some sleep!”

“Thanks, Tikki,” Marinette said, tucking the horseshoe in her bag and turning towards the edge of the rooftop.. “Spots on!” She ran and leapt off the roof as the transformation swept over her, swinging through the buildings and wondering how she was going to explain her late arrival to her parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life's been really busy the past year, which is why it's taken me almost a year to update this. But I'm trying to build up a buffer so you won't have to wait as long! You can expect the next update in two weeks! Or if you can't wait that long, come scream at me on [my tumblr](https://theshadowedqueen82.tumblr.com).

**Author's Note:**

> Still not 100% satisfied with this, but here we are. If you're here expecting regular updates do I have bad news for you my friend. But hopefully you enjoy what's here so far!


End file.
